Milkweed Seed Separator Chip Taylor s design is for a 30 gallon metal trashcan (plans and video http://monarchwatch.org/bringback-the-monarchs/milkweed/seed-separator). Bryan Bockbrader of the Wood County Ohio Park District modified it to fit a 5 gallon bucket. These pictures show the 5 gallon version. An overall picture of the 5 gallon bucket separator. This design has a lid that overlaps the top of the bucket with cleats on the outer edge to center the pole and keep the top rack centered. Looking into the bucket with the top rack inserted. The fluff that has been deseeded is lighter and floats up to the top of bucket where it can be carefully vacuumed away. The top rack with the center pole. The outer boards fit outside the bottom rack boards. All the screws overlap with the adjacent boards. In other words, the screw points of this outer rack fit between the screws of the inner rack. And the screw points from the center pole also fit between the inner rack screws. As the top rack spins around the bottom rack, this creates a nice ripping action. 11/16/2012 3:10:00 PM Page 1 of 5
With the top rack removed, this looks into the bucket with only the bottom rack installed. The bottom tack fits easily into the bucket and floats off the bottom a little on pieces of 2x4 fastened to the bottom. During operation ¼ inch hardware cloth screening allows the seed to drop through while keeping the fluff above. A side view of the bottom rack. Another view of the bottom rack. The entire device broken down to its component pieces: the lid, bucket, bottom rack, and top rack. Here s a view of the handle I retrofitted to the center pole. Bryan s version stopped with the drill bit jammed into the top of the pvc pipe. I added a T and a few other pieces to create the offset handle for manual spinning. (see notes below) 11/16/2012 3:10:00 PM Page 2 of 5
This is a seed pod resting on the top plate of the top rack prior to stripping the seed and fluff out and putting into the container. A wider view of the pod and fluffy seed inside the bucket. A view looking down into the bucket filled with about 5 pods worth of seed and fluff. Side view of the same. Note the screw on the side of the plate that attaches the top rack to the center pole. Also note how fluffy the uncleaned seed is. A closer view of inside the bucket after a few spins of the top rack. 11/16/2012 3:10:00 PM Page 3 of 5
A wider view showing the placement of the shop vac hose. This catches a lot of the fluff as it rises during spinning. Notes: Bryan s crew at the Park District hooked a drill up to the top of the pole and used that to spin the top rack for about a minute. They then slid the plywood top off and used a shop vac near the top to suck the fluff away. I didn t see them use it, but they were happy about the results. Bryan lent it to Denise and me to take for a test drive. We used the drill to spin the upper rack as Bryan described. I m guessing about ½ the seed came clean with this method. Jan Hunter came over and we tried it with some of her seed. Also using the drill, we guess that ½ the seed came clean. Jan felt that she does as well in a shorter amount of time by manually rubbing the fluffy seed over a screen. With this disappointing review, I went back to Chip s plans and built one to fit a 15 gallon plastic trash can. The big difference between Bryan s and mine was that I had a good 10 inches or so of space above the top rack and below the top edge of the container. Bryan s top rack rack came right up to the top of the 5 gallon bucket. Otherwise I believe the placement of the screws remained as in Chip Taylor s plans. Using my 15 gallon system, I decided to manually turn the upper rack in the bucket instead of hooking up a motor to do it. My hypothesis was that the motor spun the fluff too fast and tossed it to the outer edge where it didn t get as much shearing action as a slower method. As in Chip Taylor s video my configuration uses a couple of 90 degree pvc elbows and two short pieces of pvc pipe at the top of the pole to create an offset handle. This allowed me to easily turn the rack at any speed I wanted. I cut a hole in the plywood top and attached my vacuum. I put about 15 pods worth of common milkweed fluff /seed in the device, put the lid on, hooked up the vacuum, started turning the rack, and turned on the vacuum. I could hear seed moving into the vacuum. So I disconnected the vacuum hose and took the top off the cleaner. Manually I turned the rack back and forth and watched I could see fluffy seed catching on the screws and then being torn clean by an overlapping screw. Sometimes bunches of fluffy seed would compress and pile up somewhere in the machine. I found that turning the rack back and forth would dislodge the clumps. Using the vacuum cleaner hose near the top my trashcan I could see the fluff that had been cleaned of seed would float up and get sucked out. After about 10 minutes or so of playing with this, I found that the fluff in the vacuum cleaner was mostly pure of seed and there was a lot of seed in the bottom on the separator. I m estimating near 100% cleaned seed. 11/16/2012 3:10:00 PM Page 4 of 5
Here s what I found worked best for me: 1. Make sure the uncleaned seed is dry and the floss fluffly. 2. Don t put the pods in the container with the fluff. Strip the fluff and seed out of the pod and let the seed / fluff fall into the area underneath the top plate of the upper rack. 3. Don t put too much in. Don t pack it in there. It needs to remain fluffy and free to float around. 4. In addition to spinning the rack around, rotate it back and forth sometimes. This keeps the fluff from bunching up and compressing. 5. Be careful with the vacuum. It s amazing how light that fluff is. It s easy to suck out fluff with seed still attached if you get to close. Is it more efficient that hand cleaning? Jan would probably say it s not worth her time to use this apparatus. She s done it for years and seems happy with the manual results and the little time it takes her. For me, I m satisfied sitting on a stool in front of this thing and churning away for awhile. Is it less messy this way? No question. The container keeps the fluff contained and the vacuum sucks away the fluff. I tried the bag shaking technique the other day and had milkweed fluff blowing all over the neighborhood. And I suspect any method of rubbing the fluff over a screen would produce a lot of free ranging fluff. Regardless, I still wouldn t use the separator inside the house. It took me about ½ day to build mine. I used materials I already had. I am fairly skilled in woodworking and have all the tools to help. However, this isn t a difficult device to construct. I m sure it could be done with a handsaw, drill, and screwdriver. No question, it s easier and faster with power tools. I tried both the 5 gallon and 15 gallon versions. I spun the upper rack manually for both of these sessions. Obviously I was able to load a lot more into the 15 gallon trashcan than the 5 gallon bucket. Both constructs worked well for me. 11/16/2012 3:10:00 PM Page 5 of 5